After years of toil and fun, I've sold the trawler and bought a beautiful ketch - Arctic Rose

This blog is about the progress I made with Lady Jane and the start of a completely different lifestyle with Arctic Rose, and other fun stuff.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Freshwater run

This recent spell of sunny weather also prompted me to ship another load of freshwater across to Lady Jane.

The photo shows the paraphernalia needed to get the water into the storage tank at the stern.

Over the side, you can see the water container I use to get the water from the marina to alongside - a 1000 litre IBC which is on my platform, Willcarry 1.

On deck is a spare 12V battery, along with a charger to top the battery off at the same time. The small water pump I use is actually submerged in the ICB.

As it happens, it's quicker to pump the water aboard than it is to fill the ICB at the marina.

Something I'm very pleased with, is just how much I have improved in handling the platform when towing and manoeuvring it with the Old Sow.

In reality, I've found that the secret of successful towing on the water is all in the setup of the lines securing the inflatable and the platform together.

Provided the RIB engine is sufficiently far enough behind the platform, and the lines for towing both forward and astern keep the platform neatly alongside the platform when under tension, manoeuvring becomes pretty straightforward.

6 comments:

That is such a brilliant idea...towing your water and pumping it onboard.I would never have thought to do that. Every time I thought of trying to live off the grid, I pictured either having a water distiller onbord to purify whatever water I was sitting in, or dragging jugs of water by boat and hauling it onbord by hand.Bravo, I like your idea much better.

Simpler yet is something I've seen films of in the Greek islands and Cyprus. They float a huge bladder directly in the ocean, fill it with fresh water through a pipe, tow it to the destination and pump it out.